Dick;
That was an expen$ive lesson!
Regards, Neil
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick J [mailto:lsr_man@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 10:45 AM
To: Albaugh, Neil
Cc: lsr list autox
Subject: Fuel and Octane Booster
On one of my other posts, I mentioned my teenage years and outboard racing.
I had been racing in local events for almost three years, and ran a good
solid second all the time. I wanted to beat "Number One" so bad I could
taste it. The old man who sold me my motor, also raced cars. He went into
the back of the shop, and came out with a tin can of "juice". He told me to
add about two capfuls to a tank of gas for the outboard, and it would put me
into first place. Sure enough, I won my first race. For the next race, I
wanted to go even faster, so I added about double of the juice. Man, that
motor screamed. Sounded like a Canadian chain saw on steroids. For the
Labor Day finale, I was going to set the world on fire. I mixed about 1/3
juice to 2/3 gas-oil mix. I cranked up the motor for the first heat and ran
so far out front it was unbelievable.
THEN. Have you ever heard a motor go from 10,000 RPM to zero in 1/100th of
a second? I don't really know what the motor was turning, but it was kinda
like turning the television "mute" on in the middle of a Formula One race.
My motor stopped so fast, and with such force, that it twisted right off the
back of the boat, taking most of the transom with it. The motor and the
hydroplane are still at the bottom of the lake in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
I had learned my first lesson on how (not) to use fuel.
Ironically, I'm building my Dodge hemi to run on nitro/alky! But hell, it's
been fifty years, I have learned a little bit, and I can afford to blow it
up if I want to - - - as long as it's the last race I ever want to run. hee
hee hee
Dick J
"Albaugh, Neil" wrote:
Dick;
We knew we were treading on thin ice, so we used only a low percentage. I'm
certainly not advocating mixing your own fuel-- it's risky and it adds yet
another variable into the equation. Racing gas is as good as or --more
likely-- better than anything anyone is likely to blend.
Back in the thirties, mixing up special "bug juice" wasn't that uncommon.
People used av gas, benzine, toluene, nitromethane, and just about any
flammable solvent you can think of to try to find a magic combination. Few
mixtures were successful, some were scary, and most resulted in lots of
scattered engines.
Regards, Neil
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